River Rocks or Wishing Stones
by ArtisteFish
Summary: Magic was never uncommon in The Hundred Acre Wood, but now that Christopher Robin is in High School, it seems that all the magic has gone from his life. A river rock brings up memories from his childhood, and a few innocent wishes create a situation which Christopher never intended to happen, but may be just what he needs. ON HIATUS.
1. Chapter 1

River Rocks or Wishing Stones?

Prologue

* * *

"Christopher! Christopher, get back here! What time do you call this?"

The tall, lanky teenage boy paused in his ascent up the staircase, and turned to look angrily at his mother, who was still standing by the front door, hands on her hips and a slipper-clad foot tapping impatiently.

He shrugged disinterestedly in response, while his mother continued to stare disapprovingly, prompting an aggravated "what?" from the boy.

She huffed and crossed her arms, saying "Don't take that tone with me! It's almost midnight, and you're just now getting home!"

Christopher rolled his eyes and replied exasperatedly "I'm almost 18, mom! I'm not a baby!"

"That's not the point! You didn't even call to say that you'd be home late; I had no idea where you were!"

"It's not like I was doing anything wrong! I was hanging out with friends, and then I just… hung out around the stream for a while."

"Until 11:00 at night?"

Christopher's eyes steeled, and he turned once again to go up the stairs to his room.

"Christopher Robin, we're not done with this conversation."

He stopped again, sighing in resignation. "What do you want me to say mom? I lost track of time! I'm sorry! But do you really have to know about everything I do every second of the day?"

His mother's eyes softened, and her arms dropped as she sighed warily.

"Honey, I know you're not a baby – you're a senior in high school now! – but I'm your mother! I worry about you! I just want to know that you're alright."

"Well I'm fine. I can take care of myself."

And before his mother could say another word, he was already on the second floor and walking into his room.

He closed his door firmly as he entered the room, trying not to slam it, and fell onto his messy bed in a huff, not bothering to even remove his shoes as he closed his eyes and thought, the conversation he had just had playing over and over again in his head.

The truth was that he wasn't fine, and he hadn't felt fine for a long time.

He had been alright through most of his time in high school, but as his last year dawned, he found himself facing a horde of difficult questions and decisions he didn't feel ready to make.

Christopher still had no idea what he wanted to study in college, or even where he would go, and although he did fairly well in school, he lacked focus.

There was really no motivation for him to keep trying, and he could feel himself getting more and more apathetic about his studies and his life in general.

It wasn't like he had a lot of support either – his mom constantly nagged about his life, but he didn't feel like sharing with her.

She wouldn't understand what he was going through; she would just tell him to try harder.

He didn't want to hear that.

And he couldn't even remember his father, so that didn't help either.

There were a few friends from some of his classes that he hung out with occasionally, but he never really connected with them.

He could pretend he was enjoying himself, participate in conversations with ease, and was even known at times for being quite the jokester, but none of it really meant anything to him.

He would step back from the conversation, go off on his own, and feel just as lost and alone as he had before.

Such a situation had happened just that evening; he had been at a nearby diner with some of his regular friends after school, and inevitably the conversation had turned to plans for college and beyond.

Some were attending prestigious schools, others the local college, and others still were going straight into the work industry.

When asked what he planned to do, Christopher had laughed, leaned back, and said he wasn't going to worry about any of that until after he made sure he had a diploma.

Everyone had laughed and moved on, but it didn't change the fact that he was still dwelling on it.

He had left the group before it got too late, and before going home had stopped at the stream down the road from his house.

He ended up staying there for a while, reminiscing on when he was younger – when things had been simpler, and when his biggest worries had been how he was going to get back in the house when he was soaking wet and covered in mud without infuriating his mom.

Christopher rolled over in bed, trying to get more comfortable, but something hard in his pocket made him wince and roll back over.

He put a hand in his pocket and found a fairly large, almost perfectly round stone that had been on the shore of the stream.

It had seemed so out of place, so perfect, that he couldn't help but pick it up at the time and marvel at it, turning it around and around in his hand.

It was pearly white in color, with veins of darker rock running through in a marble pattern, and it's almost completely circular shape was as smooth as a flower petal.

There was something about this stone when he first found it that seemed magical; something that he had not felt since he was very young, and he had gone almost every day to play in the woods behind his house, where his friends and companions had been stuffed toys and forest wildlife, and when nothing had seemed impossible.

As he looked at the stone while he stood by the river, he began remembering scenes from his childhood – running with his favorite stuffed bear as a swarm of angry bees chased the would-be-honey-snatchers, hunting flutter-bys in the spring with a little pink piglet who could never get high enough to catch one, laughing as a rabbit and a stuffed tiger tried (and failed) to teach him proper party etiquette, and laying in the grass during summer, watching the clouds go by and imaging all sorts of strange things they could be, while the little bear who was his best friend saw only honey pots in the shapes above them.

He had smiled despite his previous melancholy, and thought about how, if his friends were here now, they would have said this was a wishing stone and immediately begun wishing all sorts of stupendous and silly things.

As he had held the stone, the sun broke out from behind a cloud and glanced across its surface, sending a dazzling shine across Christopher's face and momentarily blinding him with a rainbow like flash.

Rubbing his eyes, he had looked back at the stone (which had returned to a more dull sheen) and before he could rethink his decision, placed it firmly in his pocket.

Christopher broke from his reverie to find himself still lying on his back in bed, staring up at the stone which he held before his face.

It was nowhere near as bright as it had been when he'd first picked it up, but even in the dim light of his room it seemed to glow with some kind of inner light.

Once again, he found himself thinking of his friends from the Hundred Acre Wood, and despite his worries for the future and teenage angst that usually pervaded his mind, he encompassed the stone tight in his fist, closed his eyes, and began to wish, just as he would have done so many years ago.

'I wish my friends could be with me; I wish they could hang out with me and come to school with me, and look out for me like they used to; I wish I had real friends like them, and they'd truly care about me and understand me.'

'I wish I could be happy again, like I used to be when I was young.'

* * *

*Author's Note:

I quite enjoy writing Winnie the Pooh fiction! It doesn't seem to be a very popular category, but I think it really has some awesome potential, especially when you consider all the great storylines and characterizations the TV show brought about!

BTW, this_ does _take place in the "New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" universe.

Oh, and after this first chapter, things get a little... strange. Hopefully a 'good' strange, but yeah, it's a different kind of Winnie the Pooh story.

And if it starts to sound like any other Winnie the Pooh stories on here, I apologize, but that wasn't really intentional. I was inspired by someone else's story where a similar type of event occurred, but that story was never finished and really didn't go past an introduction, and the way I made everything happen is pretty different so... yeah, I'm just gonna shut up about it and you can see for yourself what I'm talking about in the next chapter. ;)


	2. Chapter 2

The first thing Tigger knew upon waking up was that he was not in his sock drawer.

He could feel the weight of blankets on him, and they seemed to bind him down as he lay on his back in what was seemingly a regular bed.

His eyes shot open and were met with water-stained tiles and a dusty ceiling fan.

He should have been looking at rickety wood boards and tree limbs.

Tigger puzzled for a moment over the strange situation, trying to remember if any of his friends in the hundred acre wood had homes with ceiling fans.

The only one he could think of was Christopher Robin, and he hadn't been over to his young friend's house in, well… he couldn't remember how long.

No one had even seen Christopher Robin for what seemed like years after he had started attending that "skull" thing.

So Tigger was left with no answers, and – with little else to do - decided to do a little more investigating.

That was his plan, but the moment he sat up and threw off his covers, he was struck by two very shocking revelations.

One, his stripes were gone, and were replaced by a bright orange fabric.

Two (and this one really threw him for a loop) it appeared that he now had human legs.

A quick scan of the rest of him confirmed it: he was human.

Tigger stared at his new and decidedly human hands, turning them over and staring in horror at their pinkish color and lack of stripes, and slowly brought them up to his face, which was much different then it had been the night before.

He leaped out of bed, poised as he usually would be to spring away on his tail, and instead landed hard on the thinly carpeted floor, discovering (much to his utter despair) that not only was he no longer in possession of a tail for springing, but that he was also quite susceptible to pain.

The trauma of no longer having a tail was enough to keep him on the floor for days, but (being the distractible animal that was) a quick glance of his surroundings got him up off the floor as he went to have a look around.

He spotted a full-length mirror in the corner of his new room, and stumbled his way over to it, tripping on his new legs.

What he saw stopped him cold.

Tigger's once fluffy, orange, striped body was now tall and trim, his orange pajamas clashing horribly with his brown striped ginger hair, which curled in waves all over his head. Though his long face was now void of whiskers, it was a small comfort to see that he still possessed a preposterous chin and round nose.

For a moment, Tigger had the brilliant idea that he might actually be dreaming, but a quick pinch and a loud yelp wiped that notion from his head in a snap.

He continued staring at the strange reflection, moving his arms, legs, and head to double check that it really belonged to him, before tearing his eyes away from the strange (and rather frightening) image to look around his new room a little more.

There was a small table in one corner of the rectangular room and a dresser in the other, and on top of both surfaces were a variety of trophies.

Intrigued, Tigger walked closer to examine them.

They were for all sorts of sports and physical activities, the most numerous of which seemed to be for something called "Parkour".

He picked up one of the smaller ones, surprised to see the name "Tigger" printed on it, when suddenly a raspy shriek erupted from somewhere below him in the building, causing him to drop the trophy (which fortunately was metal and thunked soundly onto the carpet) and make a mad dash under his covers.

He sat there quivering for a few seconds before the shrieking evolved into a cacophony of noise as someone began crashing around and babbling in an incomprehensible and panicked manner.

For a moment he sat listening, wondering why the strange, hoarse voice sounded so familiar, when suddenly it struck him – Rabbit.

As soon as it hit him he wasted no time in leaping out of bed and throwing his door open, glancing frantically around what seemed to be some kind of indoor landing lined with doors.

He spotted a staircase a few doors down, and before he could even think, he had slid down the railing to the next floor. He looked behind to where his room would approximately be, and found that the door just below his seemed to be the hub of all the chaos.

Tigger rushed to the door and tried to open it, but it didn't budge.

So he pounded on it with all his might, yelling over the din "Rabbit! Rabbit, is that you? It's me! Tigger!"

He was remotely aware as he yelled that the voice coming out of him was his normal one, though a bit less lisping than it had been before that morning.

Suddenly the noise inside the room was gone, and a long pause followed it, only to be broken by a small and almost high-pitched "Tigger? Really?"

Tigger could hear a jangling of metal and the click of locks, and soon the door opened wide to reveal –

A very frazzled looking man just a bit shorter than himself, with short, yellow-blonde hair that hung around his panic-stricken face. His dark eyebrows were drawn in confusion, and he looked to be several years older than Tigger, though it was hard to tell through the stress-lines and facial hair.

He stared horror-struck at Tigger, who stared wide-eyed back at him, and it seemed that all he could do was stammer out "what… what on earth happened to us?"

Tigger smiled. It was Rabbit alright – despite the lack of long ears, he wore exactly the same expression he would have were he still an animal.

The expression was so familiar and comforting in fact, that before he could stop himself, he barreled into Rabbit in a tight Tigger-hug, with a loud exclamation of "Bunny-boy! It's really you!"

Rabbit responded with his usual shove and scowl, and a reprimand of "Quit fooling around, this is serious!", but Tigger thought he looked a little less panicked then he had previously.

Stepping decidedly around Tigger, the now human Rabbit closed the door with a thud and began, in a nervous-pace and high pitch, "Alright, now we can't panic. We've got to figure out what's going on, and how it happened, and furthermore if anyone else – "

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEee!"

A sudden scream, this one clearly female, erupted from a side of the apartment where a hallway turned off to other rooms.

The two men stopped cold, and Tigger noticed Rabbit's eyes go wide as if struck by something.

Tigger could almost see the man's ears twitch at the sound.

He bounded clumsily to the hallway, evidently as unused to legs as his friend, who was following close behind him.

There was a door at the end of the short hallway, and Rabbit quickly burst through it to reveal a young girl with bright blue hair, sitting up in a small bed, clutching a stuffed bunny tightly to her chest and squeezing her eyes shut.

Rabbit gasped loudly, standing transfixed in the doorway, and the girl's eyes popped open to stare up at her visitors.

She glanced between the two, her thin brows knotting together in confusion.

As her eyes locked with Rabbit's he froze, his posture stiff, but as she stared and cocked her head to the side, he found the strength to stutter a quiet "K-Kessie".

The young girl gasped, her eyes wide, and suddenly they were full of tears as she jumped from the bed yelling "Rabbie!" and ran to hug Rabbit tightly round the middle.

He knelt down and hugged her back, both clinging to each other as if it would fix everything.

Looking over Rabbit's shoulder, she glanced up to see the tall, smiling orange-haired man in the doorway, and said tentatively "Uncle Tigger?"

He smiled broadly back at her, leaning down to rub her hair with a gentle "Hey there Kesserino!"

She smiled back, but her face soon turned back into a frown as she asked softly "what's going on?"

Tigger rubbed his head, at a loss for what to say, when suddenly Rabbit spoke up "We don't know Kessie, but we'll find out! If we sit down and think things through, I'm sure something will turn up!"

He sounded sure, but Tigger didn't think solving this would be easy as all that, and it didn't seem like Kessie was that convinced either.

She turned her head to stare down at the ground again, and after a while whispered "Rabbie… my wings."

Rabbit's arms tensed around her, and her eyes began to brim with tears as she continued "… they're gone. My wings are gone."

She buried her face in her father's new shoulder as quiet sobs wracked her small frame, and Tigger watched sadly as Rabbit held the former blue-jay tighter and said softly, his voice thick with emotion "We'll get them back Kessie. I promise".

* * *

*Author's Note:

... Yeah, kinda different from what one might expect of a Winnie the Pooh fic.

Don't worry, it gets lighter, but after such a drastic change there has to be some drama at first!

The next few chapters should include some other characters, though I just *had* to start off with my favorites. Who are actually Rabbit and Kessie. Tigger's third. ;)

BTW, for those who are not familiar with the animated series "The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh", Kessie is a character from that show (and The Book of Pooh) who is a blue-jay whom Rabbit rescued as a baby and basically raised as his daughter in the episode "Find Her, Keep Her". Freakin' best episode of anything ever.

And yes, things *will* be explained as the story goes on, but for now you're meant to be in the dark, just as the characters are!

Though... frankly you'll probably figure things out before they do.

They're not usually the brightest tools in the shed.


	3. Chapter 3

River Rocks or Wishing Stones Chapter 3

* * *

Tigger sat on a bench outside the grimy apartment building he now called home.

Although it was now midday, the sun had yet to come out – it was hidden at the moment by a thick patch of clouds which Tigger watched intently.

Looking at the cottony expanse above him, he saw a rolling wave of white moving across the sky, carrying a raggedy pirate ship with masts drawn and cannons firing in the wind, which was then bowled over by a large whale who had crept up behind it as it sailed.

Tigger turned his attention to another part of the sky where a dragon lay curled around a pile of treasure, and suspected he saw a knight on horseback closing in from across a bridge of blue.

These images were quickly shattered however as a shiny, metallic object zoomed right through the dragon, destroying it and disrupting it's hoard, while the machine simply droned on through the sky.

Tigger sighed loudly, slumping forward and wrapping his arms around his knees which were pulled up on the bench.

What kind of place was this where you couldn't even cloud watch properly?

He sat there for what seemed like hours, in what was decidedly a most un-Tiggerific mood.

The shock of having woken up just that morning to find he no longer had springs or rubber or stuffing or any tail to bounce around on was still weighing on him, putting him in a funk he wasn't sure he'd be able to shake off.

His usual method, bouncing, was out of the question.

He had tried.

It hurt.

He wasn't used to pain, and that only made his mood worse.

The thought hit him to go find Rabbit to cheer him up, but he quickly put that out; Rabbit was tearing his hair out trying to figure out what had happened to make them all human, while doing his best to take care of a depressed Kessie as she adjusted to her wingless form.

No, Rabbit was not in a cheering-up kind of mood.

Tigger had thought that going outside and exploring might help things, though secretly he just wanted to get some fresh air away from the stuffy building and perhaps take his mind off of his current situation.

However, what he had found when he opened the front door was a busy street filled with noisy cars and air he could barely breathe.

He had quickly closed that door and headed back inside.

After some exploring, Tigger had chanced upon a back door leading to a spacious playground surrounded by high brick walls and shrubs.

There were a few children playing on the equipment, and the sound of their laughter was a welcome reprieve from the cacophony he had experienced all morning.

He had watched them for a while as they climbed and ran around, and was struck by a familiar itch to bounce up and join them.

This feeling dissipated as he realized none of them would want to play with - *yeaugh* - an adult.

So there he sat, too melancholy to move and play like he wanted, but too restless to go back inside.

Cloud-watching had proved fruitless, and he was starting to reconsider asking Rabbit for ideas (despite the short fuse he was sure to have at this point), when he felt the other side of the bench shift and heard the creak of the rickety old boards as someone sat down.

He was almost too apathetic to bother looking, but his curious Tigger nature got the best of him, and he raised his head to see who had joined him.

A woman sat beside him, her brown skin contrasting nicely with her purple dress, her dark hair pulled into a loose ponytail as she rifled through the large bag on her lap.

She looked to be older than Tigger but not quite as old as Rabbit, though the only real indication was the calm and mature manner with which she carried herself.

Tigger watched her for a while, though he wasn't quite sure why, and if she noticed she didn't make it known.

Suddenly she lifted her head to look out at the playground, and a soft smile grew on her face as a little boy came bounding up to her, skipping and hopping and laughing merrily.

His skin was the same brown as hers, and his messy dark hair fell in wisps around large and somewhat pointed ears.

The boy's dark eyes sparkled, despite the lack of sun, as his arms waved wildly in his blue turtleneck sweater as he tried not to trip over the hems of his beige khakis.

"Did you see me mama? Did you see me? I climbed all those bars and even swung around on one of 'em!"

His mother's smile didn't quite reach her eyes as she said "That's wonderful dear. Now, come here and let me brush that hair of yours. It's not even been a day and already it's a mess!"

The little boy dutifully climbed onto his mother's lap as she began tackling the tangles on his head with a large wooden brush.

The brush quickly snagged a knot, and the boy let out a loud "ow!" turning to frown up at his mother.

She only chuckled lightly, saying "I'm sorry dear, but you shouldn't have let it get so messy!"

At that the boy crossed his arms and slumped forward slightly, but as he turned his head back around he noticed Tigger staring intently at them both, a slight smile on his face.

The boy stared back at him, and Tigger froze.

Neither moved as their eyes remained glued to each other's, and it was only after a sudden breeze that Tigger was forced to blink.

The young boy smiled triumphantly, shouting "Ha! I won! You blinked!"

Tigger stared at him, wide-eyed, when suddenly a smile cracked his face, which then turned into a chuckle, which quickly evolved into loud guffaws of laughter.

The boy's smile widened, and soon he was laughing as well, the mood catching and brightening the gloomy atmosphere that had previously enveloped the bench. Even the boy's mother was smiling, happy to the friendly stranger for distracting her son from the constant pulling at his hair.

Wiping a tear from his eye, Tigger looked down at the boy still being brushed by his mother, and said jovially "That was just a practice round! Next time I'll win for sure! Why, starin' contests are what… uh, *I* do best!"

It was still odd to hear himself speak – his lisp was all but gone due to his new mouth, and every time he'd say something he'd catch a glimpse of his tennis shoes or pink hands and not even know if he was really a Tigger anymore.

He was shaken out of his reverie as his new friend reached over to tug on the sleeve of his orange hoodie.

"Hey Mister, wanna come play with me?"

Tigger smiled warmly but shook his head.

"Sorry pal; not today. Besides, ain't you a little busy at the moment?"

He pointed at the brush still being run through the boy's hair, at which the boy deflated slightly.

"Well… what am I supposed to do right now? What're _you_ doing out here?"

Tigger wasn't quite sure how to respond. He didn't want to lie to the little boy; he seemed like quite a cool little guy. However, given the circumstances, Tigger didn't think anyone would really understand his reason for wanting to be outside doing nothing.

But he didn't want to look _boring_ either.

"I'm cloud watching of course!"

This seemed to pique the boy's interest.

"See anything interesting yet?"

Tigger smiled brightly, leaning down to the boy's level and pointing up at the sky.

"Just look over at that cloud there! That's a lion that is! And over there across from it – looks like a bear, huh?"

His friend bounced happily in his seat, eliciting a soft giggle from his mother as she tried to keep him from jostling too much.

He pointed a tiny finger into the air and said "And look at that one next to them! It looks like it has stripes!"

The man looked where his little companion was pointing, and immediately sank back onto the bench.

It did have stripes. Just like a… Tigger.

The little boy must have noticed his change in expression, as he looked inquisitively up at his new friend saying "You alright Mister?"

Tigger looked into the worried little expression and put on a fake smile.

"Why sure kid! I just… haven't been feeling like myself today."

"Really?" The boy gasped loudly, alerting his mother, who was working out the last few knots on his head, to listen more attentively. "That's funny – I've been feelin' that same way too! Ever since this morning! I mean, you wouldn't believe what happened to us!"

The woman froze momentarily in her brushing, looking down at her son, her arm tightening around him as he spoke.

Tigger was also intrigued, wondering how such a happy and rambunctious kid could feel out of sorts.

"Get this – I went to sleep last night in my own bed in my own house, and BAM! I wake up this morning in a completely different house!"

"Dear…", the woman started in a stern voice, pulling her son further onto her lap as Tigger looked on with growing confusion.

"But that's not the worst part! When I woke up I didn't even have a tail anymore! Can you believe – "

"ROO! That's enough!"

The little boy deflated, turning sad eyes up to his mother as he said, "but mama…."

"No more stories Roo. Come along, we're leaving. I'm sorry to bother you sir."

Tigger sat dumbfounded, watching the mother stand to pack up her things and seeing her and the boy in a whole new light.

Roo? He didn't know if many children were normally called Roo or not, but as other pieces of the puzzle began to lock in place, he found it immaterial.

That brown skin… the blue sweater… his bubbly cheerfulness… her sweet, serene smile and dark eyes… of course, why hadn't he seen it before?

"K-Kanga."

She gasped and spun around to face him, confusion evident in her eyes as she looked at him – _really_ looked at him.

Roo's face also showed confusion as he stood by his mother, but as he stared at the man before him, realization dawned across his face, lighting it with a smile, and he sprung on the man with a joyous cry of "Tigger!"

"Roo-boy!" Tigger exclaimed, holding onto the child tightly, "Am I ever glad to find you!"

"Me too! It's been a really crazy day!"

"You're tellin' me!" Tigger said, pulling back from Roo and setting him on the bench next to him, "You shoulda been there this mornin'! Though I'm guessin' from what you were sayin' earlier, you had quite a morning yourself!"

Roo smiled widely and said, "Yeah, it was actually kinda exciting though! But I don't think Mama thought it was… Mama?"

Tigger followed Roo's gaze to Kanga, still standing and staring at Tigger, though hardly focusing on him anymore.

She was shaking, and Tigger could almost hear her breath as it came in short, sharp bursts.

Worried, he stood and approached her, slowly putting a comforting hand on her shoulder.

She flinched and stared at his hand, and Tigger almost did too.

Flesh and bone were so different from stuffing.

Kanga looked into his eyes – they were almost the same height – and for the first time it seemed that she was actually seeing _Tigger_.

"I thought it might all be a dream…" she whispered, her voice shaky and uncertain, "A horrible dream about Roo and I. I thought if I just went along with it that eventually it would end and I'd wake up, and we'd both be normal again. But… you're here too. And I can feel it. I know that it's real."

She took a moment to breathe deeply and collect herself, and looked back into Tigger's eyes, deep into his eyes as if searching for something.

Apparently she found whatever it was she was looking for, as she smiled a serene Kanga-smile, and Tigger felt something stir in his chest – a light pattering that was at once foreign and yet… not uncomfortable.

Then suddenly she was next to him, her arms wrapping around his lanky frame as she pressed her head to his shoulder. He stood frozen, vaguely aware that the pattering in his chest was quickly becoming a heavy and constant thud which he could not explain.

He almost missed her whisper his name, but his brain caught up quick enough to catch her saying "I'm glad that you're here with us."

The thudding in his chest slowed, becoming a steady beat, and he closed his eyes as he wrapped his arms around her as well.

He always did like Kanga's hugs, even if the fit now was a bit different than what he was used to.

He felt little Roo wrap his arms around the both of them as well, and he melted, his face lifting in a loving smile as he held onto his family.

"Of course. I'll always take care of you guys."

He held her for a moment longer as memories filled his head, and with a happy sigh pulled away, keeping a hand on her small shoulder as he smiled widely at her and Roo.

"Well, now that you guys are here, we better go see old long-ears so he can figure out what the heck happened to us all!"

Roo's eyes widened as he asked "Rabbit's here too?"

Kanga also looked surprised. "I wonder if everyone is here… like this."

Tigger shrugged, saying "Well, he and Kesserino – you remember Kessie, right? – they're both all crazy lookin' too now, but I ain't seen anyone else yet. Who knows though? Maybe they're there already! How 'bout it Roo? Wanna lift?"

Roo's face lit up gleefully as Tigger knelt down for the boy to scramble onto his back; he was a bit big now to ride on Tigger's shoulders.

Steadying his hold on his buddy and giving a bright grin to Kanga, Tigger led the way back into the gray apartment complex and towards their friend's room, where they all hoped to find some much needed information.

* * *

*Author's Note:

Aaaaaaaaaaaaalrighty. Finally getting back into my stories.

So yay! We now have the fates of two more characters! The rest are soon to follow.

Hopefully sooner than it took for_ this_ chapter to make it up.

And yes, there will be some answers next time. *SOME*. ;)

Thanks again to all of you wonderful Reviewers, Favoriters, and Followers! You guys make my day! :,)


	4. Chapter 4

River Rocks or Wishing stones, Chapter 4

* * *

"Alright, order, order!"

"A double-decker cheeseburger with extra mustard and a side of flies!"

"Ooh, ooh, and a milkshake for me!"

"That's not funny, Tigger. Roo, don't encourage him."

"Hey, you asked, Bunny-Boy!"

"I did not! I meant – oh, never mind. Alright, let's get down to business."

"Um, speaking of food Rabbit, you wouldn't happen to have any… snacks of any sort? Possibly?"

"… What kind of snacks did you have in mind, Pooh?"

"….. Honey."

"… Of course. Pooh, I already told everyone, if you had been paying attention: we don't have any honey, and I don't trust most of the food in that fridge! If you really want something to eat, have one of these carrots from the garden. That is if you can _call_ a window sill a garden…. And these carrots are nowhere near as fresh as _my_ carrots back home, but – "

"Uh, R-Rabbit, shouldn't we be working on a plan to g-g-get out of this place and back to our nice cozy beds?"

"Excellent idea, Piglet. Now everyone, I need you all to think. Pooh, I need _you_ to think _extra_ hard."

"Well I would Rabbit, but I usually do my thinking at my thinking spot, which I can't seem to find anymore, and since it doesn't seem to be inside this room, it might be a bit difficult for me to think 'extra hard' when the place where I do my normal thinking is nowhere to be found."

"… Well….. _try_, please."

"I might be able to try better if I have a bit of nourishment."

"NO snacks! Thinking only! Now… what did everyone do before going to bed last night?"

"Well I read Roo a bedtime story, gave him a cookie and a glass of milk, and then we went to bed. That's what we usually do."

"And I did some late night bouncing to get all 'dose extra wigglies out before bed, and then I conked out in my sock drawer 'till morning."

"I didn't do much… sat around… watched the fireflies… slept until my house fell down on me… same as always happens to me, if you want to know."

"Hooo, and I read through one of my delightful family albums before retiring for the night, though my book seemed to have disappeared when I awoke… You know, my great-uncle Albert –"

"Yes yes yes, you all did the same things you do every night. I think we can rule you all out. Pooh? Piglet? Anything out of the ordinary happen to you recently?"

"W-well, I had a nice cozy cup of tea, then checked all of my windows, then turned down my blankets, then checked my door, then turned out the lights and got into bed, then got out of bed, then turned the lights back on and checked the door again, then –"

"Never mind Piglet, it wasn't you. Pooh? You better have something to tell me."

"Alright, I'll tell you something."

"Yes!? What is it?"

"What would you like me to tell you? I can't tell you anything if I don't know what you want to hear."

"What? No, Pooh-Bear… did anything interesting happen to you yesterday? Anything that _doesn't _happen every other day of your life?"

"Oh! Well yes. I found a wishing stone."

"You WHAT?!"

"I found a wishing stone. Down by the river. And I made a wish on it."

"Wha- bu- … what did you wish for?"

"Well, first I wished for a jar of honey, but then I thought 'perhaps the wishing stone doesn't know how to get honey', so then I thought that maybe I could wish for someone else to bring me the honey, and then I remembered that the best honey always came from Christopher Robin, but then I realized I haven't seen Christopher Robin for a long time, and I missed him, so I changed my wish to wishing that I could be with Christopher Robin again. I thought if anyone could find him the wishing stone could. But then I thought about it, since I was near my thinking spot, and I thought 'what if my friends miss Christopher Robin and want to see him too?' I didn't want to be selfish, so I wished that we could _all_ be with Christopher Robin again."

"Oh Pooh, that was a very nice thought!"

"… Nice…..Nice? NICE!? Piglet! Don't you see? That NICE WISH of Pooh's is why we're all HERE!"

Rabbit swept his now human arm in front of him, looking around at the motley crew of uncomfortable-looking humans who, just the night before, had been a variety of woodland creatures and stuffed animals.

"It all makes sense! You wished for us to be with Christopher Robin, and now we're in Christopher Robin's world!"

His pale fist banged on the coffee table before him, making the short young man with soft pink hair jump with a yelp.

Despite being decidedly larger than he had been only yesterday, Piglet's courage was the same size it had ever been.

"We can't go on like this!_ I_ can't go on like this! Pooh, where is that wishing stone? We need to un-wish ourselves out of this mess!"

Bringing a pudgy hand up to tap on his head, Pooh's beady eyes scrunched in concentration as he muttered a familiar "think, think think" under his breath.

The rest of the room waited patiently, though Rabbit couldn't help tapping his foot on the carpeted floor.

Finally a look of success dawned on Pooh's face, a happy smile appearing as he said "Aha! Now I remember!"

"Yes? Yes!?" Rabbit's patience was wearing thin, his eyes wide as he leaned over the table to stare at the blonde man's face.

With a finger pointed victoriously in the air, Pooh said, quite happily, "I dropped it in the river!"

There was a brief moment of silence broken by Rabbit's shrill cry of "You WHAT!?"

"Well, I just thought that if I were to keep the stone and take it home with me it wouldn't be able to go out and grant my wish, so I thought that I would place it back in the river so it could go on its way and do whatever it needed to do, since I'm sure wish-granting involves a lot of very important and very _difficult_ steps."

"Oh yes, very important. Like CHANGING US ALL into HUMANS and taking us to... to… _wherever this is_!" Rabbit's face had gone red in his fury, and those of the company who were still paying attention had become very quiet so as to not upset the man further.

"Uh, Rabbie?"

The group turned quickly (happy for a distraction) to see Kessie standing in the doorway holding a folded square of paper and looking very confused, and Rabbit calmed immediately, the sight of his little girl in distress making him forget his frustration with the rest of them.

"What's Sh… sh-ch… sshoo…. What 's this word?"

With a pouting frown she unfolded the paper and held it up for Rabbit to see.

He took it and peered at it carefully, and the longer he looked, the wider his eyes became.

"This… this says… 'School', if I remember correctly! But why would you have a paper from 'School'? I thought that was only for Christopher Robin!"

He looked over at the young girl, and she shrugged her shoulders, saying "It was in a bag in that… in _my_ room, along with a bunch of papers and books and things. I just saw it had a day marked on it with a bright pen, and when I checked the calendar, I saw that that day is tomorrow."

Rabbit looked even more confused as he asked "Well… what _is_ tomorrow?"

"According to that paper," Kessie started, a bit hesitantly, "it's when I go to school."

* * *

*Author's Note:

Okay, this is really overdue. Working on other projects, sorry. But I'm finally back to this! At least for another chapter.

SO. This is my first time writing characters like Pooh and Piglet, so... I'm sorry if they're not quite there yet. I'm working on it. As the story progresses and I get more comfortable with it, they should get better. Oh, and Tigger is just difficult sometimes, so he's gonna take some work too.

It's all a big work in progress.

Anyways, thank you so much for all the wonderful feedback and support everyone! This story has become way more popular than I ever would have thought, and it's gotten a lot more positive response than I ever hoped it would! You're all wonderful!

And please, continue to review and favorite and follow and stuff, cuz it really helps motivate me to finish stories like this. :3


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